Realignment

A new audit says county jails increased the number of inmates they released by 37 percent statewide during the first three years after California began sending lower-level offenders to local lockups instead of state prisons.

Gov. Jerry Brown has quietly visited 10 California counties this year to see how they are faring under his three-year-old realignment law, which dramatically altered the state’s criminal justice system by increasing the burden on local governments.